Morning 1, 2, 3: Riley’s role with Myers, the Sharks prediction, and more

* NBA exec after watching Anthony Randolph get heavy minutes (and stats) for Minnesota in the last few weeks: “Does anybody realize how good this kid could be?”

Yes, Randolph has value. Had it last summer, had it while languishing on the Knicks’ bench and has it now in Minnesota–and he’s still only 21.

1–As pointed out in this Woj piece, around the league it is assumed that Bob Myers’ initial title as Warriors assistant GM under Larry Riley is a temporary formality.

Myers is being brought in to run the basketball shop as GM and wouldn’t have left his rich agenting practice for anything less.

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He’ll get the GM title at some point soon, probably after a season, with Riley possibly moving to a more ceremonial role.

So how to explain Joe Lacob picking up Riley’s contractural options through 2013, as reported by Comcast’s Matt Steinmetz?

One–we don’t know how much of that is guaranteed money.

Two–Riley was already one of the lowest-paid GMs in the league, I doubt he got a raise and it’s possible he took less money for the longer-term.

Three–Lacob/Rowell likes Riley. It’s very logical to assume that L/R wanted to make sure he was happy about Myers’ arrival (and the motivation to help groom him) and to do that the Warriors gave Riley the security of a longer deal.

Four–It’s clear that Lacob is planning a major restructuring of the basketball offices. Maybe Riley will get bumped up to a VP-line, maybe Myers gets that slot, and there’s always Kirk Lacob to account for.

It looks to me that Lacob is making room for a personnel/draft guru, as he broadens the scope of the hoops operation. Lacob has been silent for a few days, so I’m just analyzing what I see and hear.

–What does this mean for Rowell’s future? Until I hear otherwise, I’m assuming he’s part of Lacob–he’s morphed himself into Lacob’s best buddy and I’m guessing all of Rowell’s trusted lieutenants are safe for now.

You know who they are. They sure as hell do.

–What does this mean for Keith Smart’s future (his pre-game comments about his status are at the bottom of this take)?

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Doubt it changes much, but I think Lacob will want Myers to re-analyze the situation, so a Smart dismissal might take a week or so.

Myers presumably has some ideas of his own about what he wants out of a head coach and what candidates he’d like to interview. TBA on this one.

–By the way, because I’m mean, and because this was the major move of last summer…

Here’s David Lee’s year-by-year record:

-2005-06 New York Knicks: 23-59 record. Team defensive ranking: 27th.

-2006-07 NY Knicks: 33-49. Defensive ranking: 20th.

-2007-08 NY Knicks: 23-59. Defensive ranking: 22nd.

-2008-09 NY Knicks: 32-50. Defensive ranking: 28th.

-2009-10 NY Knicks: 29-53. Defensive ranking: 28th.

-2010-11 Warriors: 36-46. Defensive ranking: 27th.

2–Sharks Game 1 vs. the LA Kings tonight at the Tank. I’m such a Sharks homer, as everyone knows, so…

I’m predicting the Sharks sweep this series. LA just doesn’t have enough firepower to take advantage of some potential Sharks early-round nerves and the way the Sharks are blasting people, I figure they’ll wear down the Kings in every third period.

Tonight, maybe a tight game until two late Sharks goals: 3-1 Sharks.

3–You go Chronicle! Great job!

Hours after I reported the Bob Myers hiring and after Steinmetz reported the Larry Riley contract extension, the Chronicle reported BOTH news updates without crediting either the Merc or Comcast.

Instead, the Chron cited a “league source” conveniently for both items.

Yep, the Chron has that great league source. I’m sure that was all independently reported, not at all just poached from Comcast and the Merc.

Or it was incredibly weak journalism.

Readers don’t care about this stuff. But reporters with real sources have to care–it’s what we do; and those who don’t have real sources and take short-cuts foul up the waters.

We’re supposed to disseminate accurate info as fast as is logical, and trust that others will respect the process. Sometimes we can’t trust that.

—-KEITH SMART pre-game presser, partial transcript/

-Q: Do you feel comfortable about your situation? We’ve all noted that your contract isn’t guaranteed for next season.

-SMART: Ever since I started playing basketball I’ve been in a one-and-done situation and I’ve always managed to focus on what I needed to do as a person, as a coach, as a player. I’ve always felt comfortable with what I’m doing, to have confidence in what my abilities will allow me to continue to do.

I remember coming out here on a one-year deal. I’ve been here eight years now. So I just focus on the work that I’m going to do and how I’m going to do that work and not worry about that kind of stuff. I never have.

What is security in this world? There’s no such thing as security.

-Q: There’s the security of a long-term deal.

-SMART: But I want to coach. I don’t care about the deal. I could go get a deal and work anywhere else. But I want to be a coach. That’s what I’m doing. I’m focusing on the coaching part more than the security part.

I had a team that followed me like I had a 100-year guaranteed contract because they did everything that I wanted them to do and bounced back to play basketball for me this year. I think they went out and proved that they enjoy what I was doing.

I pushed them hard. They bounced back. So I think this group showed me a lot. So we never looked as “Keith” and the situation that he was in. They looked at me as a coach and that’s how I looked at them.

-Q: Do you believe you’ll be back?

-SMART: I focus just on now. I have a contract and we’re going to at a certain point in time and conversate. But at this point we’re focusing on this game here tonight.

[EDIT]

-Q: A couple days ago I read where you said that anywhere else this season would be considered a success but not here. I don’t really get what you meant by that.

-SMART: Just communicating that we’re moving in a positive direction… not where we want to be right now. I talked to a few guys last night watching some of the games, trying to jockey for position last night. Just communicating to a few of the guys last night that we want to be in that position…

Got a lot of response back from that. So we’re moving. I think our team is moving in the right direction.

Eventually if we continue to do the right things, me as a coach, you as a player, we as an organization, we’re going to get there.

-Q: What’s the difference between your team and a playoff team, do you think?

-SMART: No. 1 is experience. No. 2 is that they have players that have a super belief in what they’re doing.

And they have the size. I look at a team, if I can use it (as an example), like Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City was very, very good already, but they needed a playoff-type team. They went out and made a huge deal and got a playoff-tested big guy.

So I think that’s where it lies with the strength and the size of some of these guys that are going to move into the playoffs, so they can adjust to whatever team they play in the playoffs.

That’s something that I’ll be looking at with our season.

-Q: What are you most proud of this season?

-SMART: I’m that I convinced myself that I can coach in the NBA, coach an NBA team, run an NBA team. So I’m proud of that there. I’m proud of how these young men responded to me. How we put this thing together and get them to follow my lead of what I wanted to do.

I see that they were committed to what I wanted to get done. I tried some things this season, some of it worked, some of it didn’t, but that’s what every coach does when he starts off.

Tim Kawakami

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Haha, oh Timmy, you’re such a card. Don’t you find it incredibly ironic that you of all people are citing weak journalism? This in a column where you beat the David Lee drum yet again? That furlough week must have made you extra fiesty.

Stannn

So far,Lacob has kept every Cohan flunkie including flunkster to TC Firehouse. Riley,Rowell,and I wouldn’t doubt he does hire Smart…meaning by wild coincidence EVERYBODY under evaluation from the Cohan years- passed! 20 years of losing had no influence on Lacob.
And you can be sure that as Lacob adds pieces,they will more of the quality that Rowell and Riley created after they drove Mulllins away. they aren’t going to hire anybody who could be better then themselves…thats not the way American business inner workings..work.
This team operates like an investment..and why Cohan who ran the team like an investment, seems to still own the team.
I wouldnt doubt in a decade the still mediocre Warriors are sold off. Isnt that what Lacob and Gruber do? startups?…then sell off for huge profits?

Huge Grant

I’m usually with you TK, but not naming sources is just as bad as your unnamed “league sources” and “NBA execs”.

Oh, and you’re not being mean. There’s no defense for DLee, pun intended.

I don’t know why you think Rowell is safe or any of his people. Nobody is safe. You were crowing not weeks ago that Lacob loved Riley and “was in Riley’s camp” and now the season over and we are already seeing a strong replacement for Riley.

I repeat this again to all the panickers who were calling Lacob Cohan II, he is taking his time. But he will make big changes. He is smart to make change slowly. It makes for a better foundation than just tearing everything down.

I would not be surprised if both Riley and Rowell are gone by the end of next season.

Greg

Half of lee’s record on the Knicks has to do with the fact that they were tanking the last 3 years for lebron

some guy

does Keith have to talk again? after reading the above, i’m curious as to how he’d respond to the claim from a player that Ellis “gets away with ‘murder'” that MT2 reported. not that that wasn’t already obvious from watching the games, but now that a player has actually said it…

Marz

Re: WARRIORS

Happy to see any half-way bold move out of new owners. Will reserve judgment on his lack of experience and ability to improve the team.

Still not spending a single penny or single second of my time watching them until Rowell is fired. Hope others will join me in this.

WorriedWarrior

Ha! Myers is also VP of Basketball Ops. Which means he reports to the Director of Basketball Opperations — KIRK LACOB!

The legacy continues!

wfan

As long as you’re so big on statistics, Minnesota’s record since getting Anthony Randolph: 4-22; before him, 13-43. Sure helped the team, didn’t he?

Chris

Still waiting for acrtual quotes that Rowell has any involvement in basketball decisions or discussions…

Grey Warden

Not defending (pun intended) David Lee, but maybe TK should go on furloughs more often. Lee plays better when TK’s taking breaks.

Ghost of Larry Smith

Well TK is true to his ideologue mentality- once a rigid take is formed sift through any shred of material to puns home his point for months on end. TK dude, we know where you stand on Randolph. Move on! FYI, Randolph had trade value with W’s and got them a good player in Lee. Debatable contract but to say W’s did not utilize Randolph’s trade value is unsound logic.

Smart deserves to stay. W’s need to now focus on trade value of Minta and Curry and it’s Sophie’s Choice time.

Stann: Lacob wasn’t a start up guy at Kleiner Perkins; others specialized in that. Lacob was a turnaround guy, and known for his quick turnarounds — which led to his role as managing partner there.

And tho it’s hardly a secret Lacob hasn’t moved the old rot out yet — Myers hardly fits into the Rowell mode — or even the Riley mode, for that matter. We’re fortunate to get him.

Tim: Good stuff. But you can’t really rag on The Chron. It went out of the news business years ago, when it terminated most of its staff and relegated itself to full-time backwater status.

ToughLuv

After hearing nothing but more lame EXCUSES this season from gutless local sports writers — we should all REFUSE to give Lacob any credit for doing anything right — Because after all…

“IT’S TOO EARLY TO JUDGE”

Lacob was constantly defended to the point of insulting fans for merely questioning anything Lacob has done to this point.. So if its “Too Early” to assume his actions will fail — then it’s also “Too Early” to assume his actions will succeed..

The soft local media has told us to “Just Wait” and “Give Him Time” to reserve judgement on everything negative — only to praise, gush themselves and grant him immediate credit over everything positive..

It’s this hypocritical, undeserved optimism from LAZY sports journalists, that has kept our fans misinformed and held hostage by owners who take advantage of our loyalty..

A franchise who has produced 1 playoff in 17 years doesn’t deserve the befit of the doubt. If the media is so eager to grant Lacob praise, which clearly they are — THEN STOP DEFENDING HIM WITH THE “IT’S TOO EARLY TO JUDGE” CRAP!!!

All we can do throw back the same lame insulting response the media has endlessly thrown at us: “Let’s Wait and See”. Here’s to hoping Bay Area sports media grows a backbone, steps their game up and starts offering fair, deserved criticism/praise for once..

Justin Credible

wow TK calling out Chron boy Rusty.

– is a 10 game improvement really mean that much when most of the playing roster last year were D-Leaguers?

– It’s really hard to see this team become a playoff team next year when D. Lee, Biedrins and Monta are eating a big chunk of their salary cap and what are the warriors needs? (SG, PF and C) ironic isn’t it.

– How can you get excited with the new ownership – Usually when you purchased a poor maintained house for 17 yrs – you gut it down inside out and replace with new modern materials. All Lacob did is cover it up with a new fresh paint and called it good. see (Rowell, Smart, Riley)

robert rowell

love TK calling out the Chron, but, hey, you know they haven’t had any real journalists since, what, ’94?

hibcbcbc

Rusty Simmons is a worthless son of a *****. Terrible writer. uber shill, zero talent.

A waste of space. No wonder he works so well with Rowell and Riley.

Until Rowell is gone, I’m not watching. Because we will never win with Bob Rowell in this organization.

He’s a loser. And Rowell’s presence means continued denial from reality or any form of honest self assessment for this organization.

The Warriors won 36 games, good for 22nd best in the league. And people are getting battlefield promotions and contract extensions?

Need I say more. Bobby Boy has somehow conviced Lacob on what a success this season was. With 36 wins.

That’s the Warriors. Period.

Big Suede

After watching the hapless warriors for the last 20 years I am always perplexed that they make the same boneheaded mistakes year after year. When you have a guy who looks like an all-star but is a pain in the ass- SUCK IT UP AND DEAL WITH THE PAIN IN THE ASS. When Kobe Bryant started calling out jerry bus and asking to get out- the lakers didn’t react- then waited it out…. and they were rewarded for it. But if they had the warriors management- kobe would have been traded for draft picks and a white stiff.

Chris Webber
Gilbert Arenas
Anthony Randolph

The warriors should have never let any of these guys go. Fire the coach if you have too- trade whatever teamates you have too- but you can’t let go of players who have the potential to be great.

Anthony Randolph may be immature- he may make you tear your hair out- but eventually he is going to mature and want to make a name for himself in this league.

By the time Randolph is 24-25, he is going to be one of the top 10 players in the league- and just like webber- he wont mature in a warriors uniform because the team made a knee-jerk response.

WorriedWarrior

Myers may turn out to be a smart move. But any impact he’ll have will be easily negated by the presence of one Bobby Rowell!!

Lacob has to do more than one step forward, two steps back. What is he hanging on to these clowns for? Ticket sales? A ham sandwich could sell out Oracle with the loyal and rabid fan base the Warriors have.

The building could literally be on fire and I think people will still show up.

Yes, new blood is always good. But what about all that old diseased blood still mucking about in Warriors World? We need a redo, head-to-toe in the Front Office.

And if Lacob was even half as a good a business man as claimed he’d have done his research & “evaluation” on his investment before sinking all his cash into it. They’re only losing ground with fans and letting the bad blood infect the new.

As much as he may think this is a Venture deal — its not. The NBA moves fast. 6 months is a season. Off-seasons are really 3months of deals after playoffs, before training camp. A year is a lifetime. If you can’t plan, think, and act fast you lose. PERIOD. This is not a business that rewards the slow-play. And to treat it as such, only sets-up failure in the form of losing seasons.

I’m not saying he needs to act rashly or foolishly. But one new hire in the span of a year, NO FIRES (unless you count Don “foot out the door” Nelson) — in an organization that anyone with the intelligence of a rock knows has been broken for 16 years. There’s got to be more and faster turn over than that.

At this rate, next season has already been written off.

For a guy who claims to have had season tickets before buying the team. He sure acts like he’s never been to a Warriors game before buying them.

Warriors fans see the playoff as some kind of promised land. But, really, half the team in the NBA make the playoff every year. Its a joke. The playoffs are a stepping stone, especially if you’re an 7 or 8 seed., you’re still floating in the great nebulous of NBA mediocrity.

And honestly it wouldn’t take a master-stroke to get the Warriors in as a 7th or 8th seed. Even in the West. But it would take some fresh blood. Some undoing of some mistakes that have been made just in the past year or three that have set them back exponentially — big contracts to low-impact players, failure to develop young draft picks/talent, and a selling off of draft positions to name a few. And you can’t get out of the mess with the same guys who got you into the mess.

In my mind, if Lacob no-no’s any major off-season signings last year when he was asked to ok them before officially being in charge. If he enters this year with a New Front office who gave their new coach (even if that coach is Keith Smart) new directives on handling their current talent, made some good moves at the deadline, and then spent the off-season (this coming off-season), scouting and acquiring. They are a playoff team as early as ‘11-12 and at the latest ‘12-13. EVEN IN THE WEST. And from there could at least put themselves in a position to move up the food chain in the playoff pecking order. Especially with a power paradigm shift coming as the current top seeds age and rebuild.

At this rate that stepping stone is at least 5 seasons off. That means five season to get to the playoffs, 3-6 more seasons (if they get lucky, retain talent and are young and enough and healthy enough to stay relevant after the reaching that playoff plateau) to improve and have any chance at all of actually competing for a title. Oh and by the way, most teams don’t get that lucky — think Atlanta Hawks, current Pacers, even the Blazers, or the Nuggets, hell even the Suns (I know they didn’t make the playoffs this year). All playoff teams the last 3/4 years but couldn’t even get beyond just being a playoff team.

My point is, yes it takes time to build a winner, as Lacob keeps pointing out. But it takes even more time and is infinitely harder when you don’t or can’t move quickly, efficiently, and with a clear purpose and plan. And that’s what’s been lacking the last 16 + seasons and what treating an NBA team like a Venture Capital investment -slowly evaluating, adding new pieces one at a time, as you methodically restructure so as not disrupt the current cash flow, and constantly thinking only positives about your organization and everyone in it, won’t get you.

the scout

Big Suede, you’re a big dummy. If I had a dollar for every white stiff that’s played in the NBA in the last 20 years, i”d be very poor. But, if I had a dollar for every black stiff that’s played in the NBA in the last 20 years, I’d be doing pretty well. I should kbnow, I’ve been seeing the Warriors for the last 20 years and I’ve never seen so many black stiffs.

Greg

wasn’t trying to “rip” you TK like you always over blow in your tweets (its annoying, you are a good reporter, but your constant bickering about followers needs to stop). i was just throwing out that fact about the knicks record because it had a huge effect on their record. a bigger effect then lee. i don’t like lee. he sucks. but the records are irrelevant.

Big Suede

Scout- I am just pointing out history.

Warriors trade the better player (webber, randolph) and get back a white stiff (Gugliotta and Lee). Don’t blame me- those are just the facts….

Jon

tim, get over yourself!!!!!!!!!!!!

if this were ten years ago..or even 2 years ago, before you had a twitter account, this wouldnt have been a big deal at all…the chronicle writers probably did have their own league source..maybe even the same as yours..juuust maybe they dont follow you on twitter and didnt see your breaking news stories at 9 or 10 pm

Stannn

I bet if went back to Comcast at 5-they would gladly have said “This breaking news from regular Comcast visitor Tim Kawakami”
And can you believe Tim, Damon Bruce’s makeover? He’s all love for ownerships now. I think he’s following the Radnich way to succeed,better to love the rich then fight them.

Ernie Konnyu

Yes! When it comes to TK’s favorite whipping boy player, David Lee, this wild and brilliant writer is nothing but pure mean. This time the TK attack was indirect by referencing low team defense ranking of Lee’s NBA years.

TK stays away from much of Lee’s offense accomplishments such as 16 ppg this season or his double digit rebounds or his double-doubles. His offense numbers I suspect rank among the top third of power forwards. Perhaps that is why the Warriors rank in the upper half in the most improved team category last season to this season.

Tsk! Tsk! TK. Stop pretending Lee only has a lesser defensive side for too many know that his offense side is pretty good…even for an $80 million dollar man.

From one of David Lee’s fans who was also raised in St. Louis

sarchasmic

For those of you who actually keep track of this stuff, it’s true: Rusty Simmons has been a shill with nary a negative thing to say about Warriors’ management since he took over the Dubs’ beat for the Chron. He’s pretty much a wanna-be Fitzgerald.

TK’s completely right to call him out.

winwinwinwin

Tim probably loved season 5 of The Wire.

ToughLuv

Incremental changes at a snail’s pace — for a franchise that has made the playoffs once in 17 years?????

The Merc has been a far superior paper since as long as I remember. Even so, the Comical isn’t even a shadow of it’s former Hearst family self. It’s on line content and edited AP stories are embarrassing. They have not reached Fox News standards, yet, but they are getting there.

Big Suede

Scout- I was going to compare Anthony Randolph’s stats at the age of 21 with David Lee’s stats at 21 but I couldn’t- because David Lee hadn’t been drafted yet.

Scout randolph scored 31 pts in an NBA game at 20- when was David lee’s first over 30 game? When Lee was 26.

Sorry Randolph at 26 is going to be world’s ahead of David Lee- there isnt even an argument on this point.

The Truth

#18

Chris Webber
Gilbert Arenas
Anthony Randolph

“The warriors should have never let any of these guys go. Fire the coach if you have too- trade whatever teamates you have too- but you can’t let go of players who have the potential to be great.”

Chris Webber had great talent ,but never won anything and was known for choking in the clutch. In the most important game of his NBA career, the 7th Game of the 2002 Western Conference Finals, against the Lakers, he scored a total of 2 points in the 2nd Half and OT and picked up a tech in the 4th quarter that probably cost his team a NBA title. He also lied under oath in the Michigan basketball scandal. Yes he had the potential to be great, but he never reached that level.

Arenas was a great talent before his injuries, but he has never won either. He never had to grow up and of course got himself into trouble last year. The W’s threw big money at him before the Wizards resigned him to a huge extention.. He was damaged goods before the extention and the Ws are very lucky he choose to stay in DC. He now has a max contract and is a shadow of what he was before his injuries, struggling as a bench player on the Magic.

AR is only 21 years old and may yet be a great player, so the jury is still out. There are many players over the years that had great
talent that never reached that potential: Jonathan Bender, Darko,
Gerald Green, and some old Warrior favs like Chris Washburn and Billy Owens. Maybe AR can make it, we’ll see.

TK Noodles

Lacob does NOT want to spend money even if it means getting this team headed into the right direction.

Riley is a cheap option. I mean, why should Lacob spend money on a Kevin Pritchard type GM that can possibly turn this franchise around?

This organization is a joke. Lacob is a joke…and lets not forget Mr. “losing is inevitably close to winning” Guber.

Big Suede

truth- I guess Charles Barkley and Karl Malone were worthless too huh? I am not looking for championships as much as just some playoff basketball and for the team to be relevant.

I hate the kings- but I don’t think any rational person could say webber and the kings lost that series. If the kings were a bigger market- webber probably would have had two titles. There was an NBA fix that season- the Lakers were awarded the game by the officials.

Jim

Chronicle reporting: not really a surprise if Rusty Simmons was the reporter on it–absolutely one of the worst beat writers I’ve ever seen.

David Lee…so Riley drafts Udoh then trades for Lee giving away Randolph. Udoh who can’t play center, when Monroe was right there for the taking…who has been averaging a double-double for much of the last third of the season for Detroit. When we needed a center given Biedrins awful play last season. And Lee…worst statistical season in two years, for $60 mil. Riley…who last year couldn’t get anything for Claxton and Bell’s expiring contracts and waives them. Would have been nice to have 6-5 Bell coming off the bench given the midgets we have at Guard. Riley, who goes into the season, after waiving Bell, with Jeremy Lin as the backup PG.

And this guy gets to keep his job. What a world.

The Truth

Big Suede

I never said Barkley & Malone were not great players, they were great, as was Elgin Baylor, John Stockton. They made the Finals but Webber and Arenas? Those 2 were never considered great except by some loyal GSW fans after they left, like you.

The Kings lost that series on the court: Besides Webber choking, Peja and Christie airball a pair of 3s in the last 3 minutes of the 4th, the entire team shoots 2 for 20 from 3 (they lead the NBA in 3 point percentage that year) and Shaq shot a better percentage from the foul line than the the Kings (They missed 15 free throws).

W’s in 2010

So much anger in these posts! LOL

17 years, only 1 playoff appearence, we have the right to be fed up.

If Keith Smart returns next year I am officially done. Bringing him back will signal yet another below average season upcoming. Larry Riley? He’s the least creative GM in the world of sports. I mean seriously, unless something falls in his lap(Curry) he really has no clue. I like the addition of Myers, Lacob fianally realized we needed somebody with a brain in the F.O.. that’s progress!

SHOBBROBB

If Lacob really wanted to bring some credibility to himself and this franchise he wouldve hired Jerry West and fired Robert Rowell.

SHOBBROBB

But remember only season ticket holders matters

StanTheMan

Smart is the fall guy for an awful leadership group. That he won 36 games – 10 more than last season – with this roster of players is a testament that HE GETS THE MOST OUT OF THE PLAYERS HE HAS! What more can you ask from a coach?

If the powers that be don’t bring him back, they are trying to fight with the army they want and they are making him the fall guy for their incompetence. Smart showed that he knows how to fight with the army he has. A good organization will see that, and if he’s not back here with a substantially different team next year then he’d be better off somewhere else. Heck, if the team isn’t substantially different next year he’d be better of just about ANYWHERE ELSE.

rockridge

A common sand crab thinks Lacob is making nothing but lateral movements..

I like the move to add a contract savvy, transaction ‘specialist’ — so what the hell are we still paying Riley and Rowell for???

Wasn’t Lacob’s whole campaign based around “transparency” and streamlining accountability????

How many Warriors’ decision makers does it take to screw in a light bulb???

Its seems as if their not even clear on their exact job titles yet.. So when this small army of front office members limps to another 30-35 win season are they going to divide blame into small, bite-sized fractions?

..or just scapegoat our head coach again?

ADDING MORE LAYERS OF BUREAUCRACY IS NOT BEING “TRANSPARENT”

Joe, actions speak louder than words..

Kommon Senze

Not that it really matters, but worth noting that the Warriors went from 29th in opponents FG% (48.5%) to 21st (46.7%) from last year to this year, and from 30th in points against (112.4 ppg) to 27th (105.7). They also improved their rebounding percentage from 44.4% overall/20.9% offensive to 47.5%/26.7%.

So, as bad as David Lee may have been, the team actually made improvements. I agree that David Lee at PF without anybody at C who can rebound or defend/challenge shots beside him is a recipe for bad overall D (an important factor to consider when looking at each of his prior seasons, as well), but it’s pretty simplistic to blame team’s inability to defend entirely on him. Defense is a team concept, and the problem is that the team has never been constructed around Lee to give any hope of good D.

Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer, etc.. would not necessarily fare a whole lot better if they played on similarly constructed teams. In fact, Amare’s Knick squad, despite having added defensive stalwarts like Landry Fields to their rotation, was no better than it was a year ago, when it was running with David Lee at the C spot.

In other words.. David Lee is a liability on D. We get it. Pointing to him as the scapegoat repeatedly is utterly meaningless, though. Anybody who knows anything understands that if you construct a team where he has to play a lot of minutes at C with non-rebounding big-mean like Radmanovic and Udoh (or Al Harrington and Wilson Chandler a year ago), you’re simply asking to have a team that gets killed defensively and on the boards. As questionable as the Lacob/Riley/Rowell contingent has been (and, separately, I’ve long agreed that as long as Rowell is around, this regime will have trouble gaining respect from large parts of the fanbase and media), I think they probably know that they are in need of big man help, too.

I was against the Randolph trade simply due to the value proposition (not against Lee as a person), and I still think the price paid was exorbitant. But the Lee bashing just seems petty.

W’s in 2010

If you have a fully healthy year, how can you NOT improve 10 wins?? Monta only played 60 games last year, 80 this year. Azubuike only played 9 games, Biedrins 33, Ronny 42. And we had to deal with the SJax debacle. I didn’t see ANY improvement. Name a player besides DWright that had a better year than last. Keith Singletary needs to go.